Bucks village face dark winter as street light upgrades remain unfinished
The Parish Council have criticised E.ON for the delay in completing the works.
Street lights in an Aylesbury Vale village remain in 'various states of disrepair'.
Parish Councillors in Soulbury, Aylesbury, have criticised the electric utility company E.ON as works remain incomplete 27 months after the contact was awarded to them.
The decision was made at that time to change the street lights to the move environmentally friendly and cheaper LED lights.
However, despite that being arranged over two years ago several lights in Soulbury remain incomplete.
Victor Wright, Chairman of Soulbury Parish Council, is frustrated with the delay:
"Some have got the new lights fitted underneath the old ones, some have got the covers off where they have been looking at the electrics.
"So they're just in various states of disrepair really, some have just stopped working and we are having to pay £100 every time someone comes out to fix them.
"I don't know why they are making it so difficult, its a really simple job.
"There is a Parish Council meeting every month and before that meeting I call to find out what is going on and all I ever get is "In 2 weeks"."
The original streets lights were properly installed in the 1930 and have been working ever since but Soulbury would like to move to the new technology, which give better light and a life span from 25,000 hours to 200,000 hours or more before a lamp or fixture requires replacement.
An E.ON spokesperson said:
"We are sorry for the delay in completing this project.
"We replaced the majority of the lamps within a few months of the contract but a small number of street lights need to be connected to the overhead power network which is owned and controlled by the local distribution company.
"That work can only be carried be out by the network operator and we have been unable to complete our upgrades to the lights and columns until they have finished.
"We are continuing to speak to the network company and once their work on the overhead network is complete we will be able to finish our installation."